WTO allows China to impose tariffs against the US

The World Trade Organization (WTO) allowed China on Wednesday to impose $645 million worth of countervailing tariffs against the United States in a ruling that was immediately criticized in Washington.

China joined the WTO in 2012 to challenge anti-subsidy tariffs imposed by the United States between 2008 and 2012, mostly during the US presidency of Barack Obama, on 22 Chinese goods ranging from solar panels to steel wire.

The decade-long alleged subsidies case focused on whether the United States could treat Chinese companies in which the government owns a majority stake as state-controlled.

The United States, which claims China benefits from easier access to the WTO by subsidizing manufactured goods and dumping them on world markets, said the decision highlights the need to reform WTO rules that have been used to "protect China's non-market economic practices." and undermine fair, market-oriented competition.”

"Today's deeply disappointing decision by the WTO arbitrator reflects misinterpretations by the Appellate Body that damage the ability of WTO members to protect our workers and businesses from trade-distorting Chinese subsidies," said Adam Hodge, a spokesman for the US Trade Representative's office. statement.

Initially, China asked a three-member WTO panel to grant it the right to impose tariffs on US$2.4 billion worth of US goods.

The actual reward is dwarfed by U.S. tariffs on more than $300 billion worth of Chinese goods imposed by then U.S. President Donald Trump, much of which is still in place.

However, this is yet another symbolic victory for Beijing on the Geneva trading floor. In November 2019, the WTO granted China US$3.58 billion in retaliatory tariffs after it found flaws in the way Washington determined whether Chinese goods were sold in the US market.